Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin)

Our specialties in planetary exploration include robotic drilling, processing and sampling systems.

Created: 2020-05-18

Updated: 2024-10-03

Founded
Country
1983
USA
Funding
Yes, ?
Website
https://www.honeybeerobotics.com
Social
Honeybee Robotics (Blue Origin)

Product/Service - LUNARSABER

Classification
Space Utilities
Category
Resources - Energy
Space Robotics
Fields
Moon
Status
Development
First launch
Not announced

We have delivered systems for the last three of NASA’s Mars landers – including the first drill ever to look inside a rock on Mars, and the sample-handling robot inside the Mars Science Laboratory.

Honeybee Robotics, Inc., a passionate leader in technology and product development for advanced robotic and spacecraft systems, and innovative solar company, mPower Technology, Inc., announced today that the companies have been selected to provide an innovative lunar charging solution for NASA. The concept, called the Lunar Array Mast and Power System (LAMPS), will use some of the lightest solar panels ever made. LAMPS extends these solar panels to a height of two stories and unfolds another two-and-a-half stories of panel material using a patented, new deployable boom.

LUNARSABER 

NASA has selected three companies to further advance work on deployable solar array systems that will help power the agency’s human and robotic exploration of the Moon under Artemis.

DARPA LunA-10 Program Study, 2023-2024
2023-12-05, Honeybee Robotics has been selected for DARPA’s 10-Year Lunar Architecture (LunA-10) Capability Study to develop and integrate its technology LUNARSABER (Lunar Utility Navigation with Advanced Remote Sensing and Autonomous Beaming for Energy Redistribution).

As tweeted by Kris Zacny, Honeybee is looking for electrical, software and mechanical engineers to build space mining robots for the Moon, Mars, and Titan. Our first ice miner launches in 2022 followed by next systems being launched each year till at least 2027.

Robotic ISRU Construction of Planetary Landing and Launch Pad, 2016 STTR Phase I

The Apollo 15 Lunar Module rocket plume excavated regolith which sandblasted at speeds in excess of 1000 m/s the Surveyor 2 lander 200 m away. A Curiosity rover instrument was permanently damaged during SkyCrane landing on Mars. Any future human surface missions to planetary bodies covered in regolith (e.g. Mars, Moon) would need to address ejecta created during landing or takeoff.

The intent of this project is to develop a fully robotic system for building landing pads on planetary bodies. The system will excavate in-situ regolith, sort rocks according to needed particle sizes, and layout a carefully designed landing/launch pad apron to lock in the small regolith particles.

To that extent, Honeybee/MTU propose to design and build a robotic tool to perform the following 3 actions: Pick up or excavate rocks, sort the rocks in three size ranges, and deposit said rocks in three layers with the purpose to stabilize the fine regolith in the secondary apron zone of Lunar and Martian landing pads for repeated landings and take-offs.

Planetary Volatiles Extractor for In-Situ Resource Utilization, 2015 SBIR Phase II

In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) or living off the land relies on exploiting local resources and in turn reducing burden of transporting supplies. NASA has determined through various studies that ISRU will be critical for both robotic and human exploration of the Solar System. ISRU is also viewed by commercial Space companies as a significant source of revenue; volatiles (mainly water) could be mined and sold as Hydrogen/Oxygen fuel to satellite operators to extend spacecraft life.

Traditional ISRU architecture follows methods employed in the mining industry on earth: material is mined, crushed, transported, crushed again, processed, and waste is disposed of. However, mining concrete-hard ice and icy-soil is difficult without using explosives. Volatiles will get lost during crushing and transportation, and robotic material handling, as shown by the 2008 Mars Phoenix mission, is difficult. For these reasons, we propose the Planetary Volatiles Extractor (PVEx) Corer, which uses a drill based excavation approach and an integrated volatiles extraction plant. PVEx successfully addresses several aspects: drills can penetrate hard materials, there is no need for material crushing and transfer, if volatiles sublime, they will flow directly into the capture system. PVEx can also work with hydrated minerals.

Under the SBIR Phase 2 we propose to mature the technology from TRL 4 to TRL 5/6, and in turn ready the system for NASA's next HEOMD and SMD missions, as well as commercial planetary missions.

The World is Not Enough (WINE): Harvesting Local Resources for Eternal Exploration of Space, 2015 SBIR Phase II

The World is Not Enough (WINE) is a new generation of CubeSats that take advantage of ISRU to explore space. The WINE takes advantage of existing CubeSat technology and combines it with 3D printing technology and an In Situ Resource utilization (ISRU) water extraction system. 3D printing enables development of steam thrusters (higher Isp than cold gas) as well as tanks that fit within the available space within the CubeSat. The ISRU module captures and extracts water, and takes advantage of the heat generated by the CubeSat electronics system with supplemental power from solar charged batteries. The water is stored in a steam thruster tank and used for propulsion. Thus, the system can use the water that it has just extracted as fuel to fly to another location. The WINE is ideally suited as a prospecting mission and reconnaissance mission before the mining/exploration missions are launched.

In Phase 1, we demonstrated critical technologies such as (1) sample acquisition, (2) volatiles capture, and (3) various CubeSat designs. In Phase 2, we propose to develop a testbed of the critical ISRU/propulsion system (regolith -> volatiles -> tank -> thruster) and GNC technology, and in Phase 3 we will demonstrate it in space as a hitchhiker payload on a mission such as EM-1 or EM-2, or onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

An ISS demonstration can extract water from a meteorite analog (brought up to ISS), use the water to fuel a WINE CubeSat, eject it into LEO, and measure propulsion performance to improve the technology as it demonstrates a change in Delta-V from asteroid-mined water.

The main objective of this effort is to develop a WINE spacecraft with capability to prospect planetary bodies using its instruments, perform ISRU to extract volatiles (water), and use water in a thermal steam propulsion system to keep exploring the Solar System.

Status Comment / Notes

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